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adds,* that not only was Saint James in Ireland, but that he addressed 

 thence a canonical letter to the Jews, who were scattered through 

 Spain. Jacobus Valdesius, in his work (De Dignitate Hispaniae, 

 c. 16. s. 12.) hints, that Joseph of Arimathea visited Ireland,^ and 

 that from his blessing was derived its well known exemption from 

 venomous animals. Neither should it be omitted, that a brass medal, 

 which was found in digging the friars' walk in Cork in 1818, and 

 was scrupulously examined by antiquaries, is concluded to have been 

 brought into Ireland by some of its earliest missionaries. It is even 

 asserted, that, as a precisely similar one was found in Anglesea 

 among the ruins of a Druidic monument, its introduction must have 

 been very ancient indeed, in fact before the destruction of the Druids 

 by Suetonius Paulinus. 



It is, however, difficult to believe that, if there had been so 

 early a revelation of the Gospel in Ireland, it was received with such 

 sanctifying grace, as to raise at so early a period in the person of 

 Mansuetus, a disciple of Saint Peter and a bishop to Toul, (now 

 Lorrain,) even though the learned primate Usher supports the po- 

 sition. -f* — " That a person of that name governed the Church of Toul, 

 and was an Irishman, cannot indeed be denied, considering the con- 

 current testimonies of so many authors, and the constant tradition of 

 the inhabitants; there is, however, no sufficient authority to prove 

 that he lived in the times of Saint Peter, and it is more than probable, 

 that his mission to Toul did not take place until late in the fourth 

 century, or perhaps about the beginning of the fifth.":]: Neither can 

 we credit the testimonies, though also cited by Usher,§ of the cele- 

 brated Cathill, having converted the province of Munster to the 



. * See Richardson's Prael. Eccl. vol. 2. c. 27. f Britt. Eccl, Ant. pp. 390-1. 



t Lanigan's Eccl. Hist. vol. 1. p. 3. § De Britt. Eccl. Primord. p. 751 to 760. 



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